Open Mic Blog

Beth Anne Miller'slove affair with Scotland is evident in her forthcoming novelINTO THE SCOTTISH MIST.Ask her about her less-traveled roadtrips to Scotland and Ireland, horseback riding, her uncanny memory for numbers, and one of her favorite quotes: "Not all those who wander are lost." Escape to bonny Scotland by reading her time travel romance and walking right into the breathtaking Highlands!

Glenfinnan Monument and Loch Shiel

Eilean Donan Castle

A couple of years ago Beth and I became friends through our mutual love for all-things-Celtic, and she even emailed me from The Cliffs of Moher after capturing this stunning sunset.

A lifelong New Yorker, Beth has been an avid reader since a ridiculously young age (rumor has it she was reading street signs at around 2, but this could be an urban legend), and is often in the middle of several books at once. A road trip through the eerie moors and misty Highlands of Scotland provided the inspiration forINTO THE SCOTTISH MIST.She longs to ride a galloping horse across a field of heather (and if she has a handsome kilted man to accompany her, so much the better). She currently works in the publishing industry in New York City and is trying to plan her next road trip.

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Discoverseven fascinating things about Beth! For the next twodays, she will be answering your questions about her forthcoming book, writing romance novels, and anything else you want to know (within reason!) Please make her welcome and ask away!

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~Seven Things You Probably Don't Know About Me~

Beth Anne Miller

1.I’ve been a certified scuba diver since I was 14, and went to college for marine biology, with the career goal of hugging whales. I ultimately realized (after an internship at a marine mammal research lab in California) that Whale Hugging was an unrealistic career goal and changed my focus to a more general biology degree. And then I did a 180 and got a Master’s in Literature to go with the Bachelor’s in Biology.

2. I am a huge fan of 1980s hair bands. If there’s a bunch of eyeliner-wearing, long haired androgynous dudes in leather screaming at octaves that defy the normal human range, then I’m there. I even have a plush llama named Sebastian, after Sebastian Bach from Skid Row (I also saw Sebastian Bach play the title role in Jekyll & Hyde on Broadway, and he was awesome).

3. I’m a Lord of the Rings geek—have read the books and written papers on them for college, have seen the movies a million times, and have been to see the complete score performed live to the first two movies at Radio City Music Hall (Return of the King- October, 2011—who’s in?). I can sing along with Aragorn’s Elvish song in Return of the King. Oh, and I can’t watch one movie without watching all of them, which can make for a very long movie night.

4. I am, for some unknown reason, obsessed with all things Scottish. I say “for some unknown reason,” because I have absolutely no Scottish blood in me at all. Maybe it’s from growing up in a neighborhood where the streets all have Scottish names (McLean, McDonald, Barrie, Murdock, Campbell, Douglas)? Anyway, I love reading novels about Scotland, I love bagpipe music, I love the kickass Scottish tribal band Albannach, I love traveling to Scotland, and I obviously love men in kilts. Oh, and Gerard Butler.

5. I am a huge fan of road trips. My first one was in a convertible down the west coast from the Puget Sound area of Washington to San Diego and then over to Arizona and Las Vegas. That resulted in me later buying a convertible (so much fun to drive!). Then followed a road trip through Scotland (1400 miles in like 9 days—so beautiful there!), and then another one in Ireland (with an obnoxious Garmin GPS that nearly got chucked out the window). It’s just so wonderful to tool around on the less-traveled roads and come upon a castle ruin. Wondering where to go next …

6. I don’t like cheese. There, I said it. I occasionally eat pizza (but I’m picky about it), and I will eat American cheese (not the Kraft singles, but the kind you get at the deli counter), but as a rule, I don’t like it. Which makes me a nightmare in restaurants, because I always have to ask if the food I’m ordering has cheese on it. And if I don’t ask, assuming it doesn’t, then I find out the hard way that I should have asked. There’s one pizza place near work that uses a ton of parmesan, and I can’t even walk by that place without gagging. FYI, not liking cheese makes you a target for ridicule, strange looks, and outright horror.

7. I spent a 9-week semester at sea on a schooner during my sophomore year at college. We started out in St. Maarten and sailed to and among various Caribbean islands before heading up the eastern seaboard to Long Island, NY. It was a fantastic experience, except for the fact that I was seasick for 9 weeks. There is this legend about something called sea-legs that folk are rumored to acquire a few days into a nautical journey, which makes them able to handle the motion of the sea, but I think that’s all a bunch of rubbish.

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~ Sometimes, in order to have a future, one must journey to the past ~

Hi Beth Anne:
Wow. You certainly took a circuitous path to writing (as did I). How did you find your way to publishing? Do you weave biology or marine mammals into your work? Also, what led you to write romance novels in particular (all those well-muscled tartan lads, no doubt!)?

Marie Manilla says...Hi Beth Anne:
Wow. You certainly took a circuitous path to writing (as did I). How did you find your way to publishing? Do you weave biology or marine mammals into your work? Also, what led you to write romance novels in particular (all those well-muscled tartan lads, no doubt!)?

Hi Marie,
I had been working in a genomics research lab and was dissatisfied. I knew I wanted to go back to school, and knew that I always loved my English Lit classes. I got my master's, and was working on my manuscript, and had inquired in my writing group about how one can get a job in publishing. I was referred to the Publisher's Lunch job board, and ultimately found the perfect job in the perfect place.

I do have a short scene in INTO THE SCOTTISH MIST that involves the bottlenose dolphins that hang out in Moray Firth in Scotland. I have some ideas for other projects involving marine life that I will hopefully find time to work on.

Well, I at first was puzzled about 1980s hair bands. I wore 1960s and 1970s hairbands, but wasn'tsure how they differed from the 1980s ones. . . but getting away from fashion accessories, I'm wondering if you write much fantasy or are interested in "heavy metal" science fiction writing as well as romance writing.

I'm not really into science fiction, but as far as fantasy, I've got ideas rattling around, but most of them are romances with some sort of fantasy element, as opposed to straight fantasy. Now if I could just get them down on paper...

I started this manuscript when I was working at the lab and we had literally nothing to do for a few weeks, and I was really bored at work. I had a minor obsession with the actor Gerard Butler, and thought it would be interesting to write about a hot time-traveling Scottish actor. had a friend at work who would brainstorm with me almost every day, and the book slowly evolved from there. That was a very lengthy process, and I learned a lot about writing during that time. Now I have ideas for other things and work on them here and there, but have to really make some time to get back into it.

Gwen Roman says...GIven your love of travel, I bet you'd have no qualms taking off for parts unknown in order to research your next novel. What are some of the destinations you'd most like to see?

Hi Gwen!
I would love to go back to Scotland and Ireland, as well as visiting Australia and New Zealand. Or maybe I'll have to go back out to sea to do some research (with one of those anti-seasick patches). So many places, so little time....

Abby Sanders returns to her beloved Scotland after a long absence, seeking peace after a terrible tragedy. A chance detour reunites her with Ian Mackenzie, the love she left behind four years ago. Their attempt to rekindle their romance along the shore of Loch Ness is cut short when Abby vanishes.

After a desperate search for the woman he's spent four years trying to forget, Ian is forced to believe the unbelievable: he must travel through the mists of time to find Abby. But finding her is just the beginning.

Trapped four hundred years in the past, Abby and Ian must find a way to end a bitter clan feud or sacrifice their return to the present and their future together."

It's basically a time travel romance with a twist: rather than one character traveling to the other time and meets the other character, in this case both are from the present and both journey to the past. Hopefully, people will like it!

As to the numbers, I just have a really good memory for numbers (I don't think it's photographic, necessarily, but it's pretty darn good). I used to work in a bookstore, and when we rang up an employee's purchase, we had to enter his or her social security #. One of my friends who worked there (who had left for many months and then came back to work there for the holidays) was buying something, and I rattled off her SS#... I think she was alarmed. I still remember it.